Love Lies Bleeding director nearly made the ending completely different

The film, which landed in UK cinemas today (3rd May), follows lovers Lou (Kristen Stewart) and Jackie (Katy O’Brian) as they embark on a wild journey brimming with death and gore as they make their way to a bodybuilding competition in Las Vegas.

The film builds to a big visual twist in the final act as Jackie undergoes a huge (and we mean monster-sized huge) transformation, saves the day, and runs off into the sunset with Lou.

And while this epic visual flourish might be one of Love Lies Bleeding's talking points, director Glass has revealed that she nearly kept the final act “very grounded and in reality”.

“I think, similarly to St Maud, I had the ending quite early on and then a lot of it’s kind of finding your way to it,” she exclusively told RadioTimes.com.

“So we had a version where that happened really on. Because I think for me and Veronica my co-writer, what happened felt to us like a very natural progression of the story that comes before.”

She continued: “It felt very natural, and then at some point we did get cold feet. So we did write versions where we kept it very grounded and in the real world, and essentially the same kind of dynamics played out, but just in a very literal way, and it just always felt like a bit of a cop out, and kind of unsatisfying.”

O’Brian added that she couldn’t believe it when she first read the scene.

“Yeah when I was reading the script, after I threw up Kristen, I thought nothing would surprise me, and then I read that I become 50 feet, or whatever, and I was like, ‘what is this?’" she said.

“It took me a while to sit down and really think it through and I think with discussions with Rose she was like ‘see what you want into it but also have fun with it’."

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Speaking about her interpretation of the scene, she added: "And I think it was this self-actualisation in a weird way. Originally I was supposed to be naked and, fortunately, they decided to put me in a bikini and make me look like I wanted to look on stage, as if I had won. So that informed it – I’d achieved what I’d wanted to achieve and it wasn’t getting mild fame through bodybuilding, it was saving the love of my life essentially."

The actor also recalled initially finding the scene “silly and awkward" to film, explaining: "It was super fun. The annoying part is that it was fake, so I couldn't actually pick Ed up.

"That would be really great, if I could actually have grown 50 feet. It was kind of weird to film, but fun to watch. Filming, I’m like alone and there’s just like blank behind me and a bunch of backdrops that they’ve kind of shaped to look like, height-wise, where I’m supposed to be, and then I’m playing with dolls and picking them up and putting them down.

"So it felt very silly and awkward to film. But watching it, it was a blast."

Love Lies Bleeding will arrive in UK cinemas on Friday 3rd May 2024.

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